Syrian refugee crisis 'spiralling out of control'

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Syria's refugee exodus

Story highlights

The number of refugees fleeing Syria's civil war has reached one million

Aid agencies including Oxfam are struggling to cope with the flood of new arrivals

Gluck: Without more money to help, difficult decisions will have to be made

"Tensions are starting to appear between local host populations... and new refugees"

Sahab and her family were not willing refugees. Like many in Syria, they were forced to leave their family home and move several times to different locations to avoid the worsening security situation all around them.

The final straw came when they hid for more than three hours, taking shelter under some stairs, as F16 planes attacked the town Al Quaryatayn, in Homs province.

When it was safe to move, Sahab joined around 50 other people heading towards the border in a van that normally transports animals.

Caroline Gluck works for humanitarian charity Oxfam

From there, it was another five hour journey by foot, at night, in the freezing cold. The small bags of belongings they'd brought with them were mostly thrown away along the route as the going got harder; children lost their shoes as they stumbled in the dark and made the last part of their journey walking in just their socks or barefoot.

"We were just seeking a safe place to stay where no-one would attack us", said 42 year-old Sahab, who I met with her family at the main reception centre in Jordan's Zaatari camp. More than 130,000 people are officially registered at Zaatari, which is struggling to cope with the flood of refugees.

"We were terrified. Now we are here, we feel safer. But we'd like to be able to return to Syria as quickly as possible and for the fighting to end," Sahab told me. "I want a decent, secure life, to have a life with dignity."

But aid agencies like mine are struggling to respond to the needs of people like Sahab and to provide them with basic services.

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Getting aid to Syria

Syria's refugee crisis – Syrian refugees board a boat bound for Turkey at a port in Kyrenia, Cyprus, on Sunday, November 23. Some 220 Syrian migrants crammed onto a fishing boat were rescued by a cruise ship off Cyprus' northern coast after their vessel hit rough seas in the Mediterranean Sea, authorities said.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A Syrian Kurdish child looks through the ventilation hole of a tent at a camp in Suruc, Turkey, on Wednesday, November 19. Tens of thousands of people fled the Syrian city of Kobani, alson known as Ayn al-Arab, because of the militant group ISIS.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A fly lands on the toe of 8-year-old Mahmut Munir, a Syrian Kurdish refugee boy from Kobani, inside a tent in Suruc on November 19. The boy was reportedly injured in a mortar attack by ISIS militants.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Kurdish children from the Kobani area speak after receiving food rations at a camp in Suruc on Tuesday, November 18.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A Syrian Kurdish refugee pins a picture of her son on a wall in Suruc on Tuesday, November 11. She says he died during a battle in Kobani.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Syrian Kurdish refugees collect clothes and shoes donated by civilians at a camp in Suruc on November 11.

Syria's refugee crisis – A Syrian Kurdish boy is vaccinated as he arrives in Suruc on September 23. The United Nations estimates that more than 2.5 million Syrians have fled their country since an uprising in March 2011 spiraled into civil war.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A woman carries belongings across the border between Turkey and Syria on September 23.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A Syrian refugee watches the sunrise Wednesday, April 2, after sleeping outside the Center for Temporary Stay of Immigrants in Melilla, Spain.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Mustafa Ahmad, who lost his leg in 2011 when government warplanes bombed his neighborhood in Syria, is fitted with a prosthetic leg at a refugee camp Thursday, March 27, in Jib Janine, Lebanon.

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Syria's refugee crisis – The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East delivered humanitarian aid packages to the Yarmouk refugee camps in Syria on Friday, March 21.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A boy uses a tool to dig a hole at the Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan on Saturday, March 15.

Syria's refugee crisis – After crossing into Jordan's Ruweished camp on Thursday, December 5, a Syrian boy searches for his mother while other refugees board a Jordanian military vehicle.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Newly arrived Syrian refugees carry their belongings and children after crossing into Jordan's Ruweished camp on December 5.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Syrian refugees wait in line to receive winter aid kits at the Zaatari refugee camp near Mafraq, Jordan, on Tuesday, December 3.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Refugees watch a new trailer being placed in the Zaatari camp on December 3.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A Syrian child looks out from his tent at a refugee camp in Arsal on Friday, November 29.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A girl crosses a puddle during the first snowfall of the season in a refugee camp in Harmanli, Bulgaria, on Wednesday, November 27.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Young Syrian refugees play at the recently opened Vrazhdebna shelter in Sofia on Friday, November 22.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Syrian refugees warm themselves near open fires at a refugee camp in Harmanli on Thursday, November 21.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Syrian refugees go about their daily lives in an Istanbul park on Sunday, November 3.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A Syrian refugee uses a rope to climb a tree at the Vrazhdebna shelter on Tuesday, October 29.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Syrian refugees are turned back after being refused entry into northern Iraq on Wednesday, October 23.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Refugees wait to get medical attention at the Vrazhdebna shelter on Saturday, October 19. The shelter is a former school.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A Syrian refugee begs with her children on a street in Beirut, Lebanon, on Friday, October 18.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Kurdish women grieve during a visit to a cemetery in Derik, Syria, on Tuesday, October 15.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Young Syrian refugees from Aleppo sit with their mother on the steps of a Beirut bank in September 2013.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Two Syrian refugees sit on a Beirut street in September 2013.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Young Syrian refugees sit with their father as he prepares coffee to sell on a street in Beirut in September 2013.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A Syrian refugee boy practices taekwondo at the Zaatari refugee camp near Mafraq in September 2013.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A young Syrian girl washes a pan at the Atme refugee camp along the Turkish border in September 2013.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Syrian refugee children watch Korean and Syrian taekwondo instructors during training at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan in September 2013.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A Syrian woman carries her baby across the border into Turkey at the Cilvegozu border gate in September 2013.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A Syrian girl stands with her mother in a makeshift tent as they wait to enter an official refugee camp at the Oncupinar border gate in Kilis, Turkey, in September 2013.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A Syrian girl eats a tomato at a temporary refugee camp in the eastern Lebanese town of al-Faour in September 2013.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A Syrian refugee girl drinks water from a hose near a temporary refugee camp in an eastern Lebanese town in September 2013.

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Syria's refugee crisis – In September 2013, Lower Saxony's Commissioner for Migration and Participation Doris Schroeder-Koempf, along with German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich, center, greet the first of many Syrian refugees that have been granted temporary asylum in Germany.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A refugee boy sits on the ground at a temporary refugee camp in the eastern Lebanese town of al-Faour in September 2013.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Syrian refugee children run near their tents at a temporary refugee camp near the Lebanese border in September 2013.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Mustafa Abu Bekir, who was wounded while fighting with the Free Syrian Army, smiles as he meets relatives after crossing the Cilvegozu gate border in Turkey's Hatay province in September 2013.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A Syrian refugee family of 26 people shares one room in the Eminonu district of Istanbul in September 2013.

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Syria's refugee crisis – Two Syrian refugee children sit outside a house in Istanbul in September 2013.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A refugee money-changer exchanges currency at the main market at the Zaatari refugee camp near Mafraq in September 2013.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A woman from an Alawite neighborhood in Syria holds her son in September 2013 at the Pir Sultan Abdal foundation in Istanbul.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A Syrian refugee displays second-hand shoes for sale at the main market at the Zaatari refugee camp near Mafraq in September 2013.

Syria's refugee crisis – A Syrian boy attends school in the Turkish town of Kilis in December 2012.

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Syria's refugee crisis – A Syrian jumps across the border into Turkey's Sanliurfa province in November 2012.

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Syria's refugee crisis – In November 2012, a Syrian refugee waits at a hairdresser's shop inside the Oncupinar camp in Kilis, Turkey.

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EXPAND GALLERY

Syria's refugees: The numbers

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Syria's refugees: Where do they go?

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Zaatari is a sprawling camp made up of canvas tents and prefab shelters in the Jordanian desert, close to the Syrian border, which has tripled in size in the last three months, in order to accommodate the thousands of refugees arriving every day.

The Jordanian government wants to open at least two new camps to ease the congestion, but there's no funding.

Hundreds of thousands of other refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and other countries bordering Syria, such as Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, are living in host communities, often in unheated, unfurnished buildings or makeshift shelters, where it is even harder for them to get the help they need.

In January, donors generously pledged to fund the U.N.'s largest-ever short-term emergency appeal to help those affected by the conflict in Syria, promising a massive $1.5 billion.

But so far, most of the funds have failed to materialize. The U.N. says it has received just 20% of the money promised so far.

That means some very difficult decisions will soon have to be made on the ground.

The U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, which funds Oxfam's emergency work in Zaatari, where the agency is installing latrines, showers and washing areas, says it has only received 9% of the funds it needs for its work in Jordan.

UNICEF has warned that without more money, it will have to scale back, even on life-saving interventions, including water, sanitation, hygiene work and child protection.

The crisis is spiralling out of control. There are now one million registered refugees, though the true number is far higher, since many fleeing Syria choose not to register. An end to the conflict is nowhere in sight, meaning that the flood of refugees leaving the country is likely to continue.

Host countries, including Lebanon and Jordan, must be commended for keeping their borders open and providing help. But the refugee numbers -- which currently account for 8% of Lebanon's total population and around 5% of the Jordanian population, are now straining limited resources.

Tensions are starting to appear between local host populations, who until now have been extremely generous, and the new refugees, as there's greater competition for affordable housing, health and school facilities.

Even if peace could be secured, that doesn't address the longer-term issue: Funding will be needed to help families rebuild their shattered lives, for months and years to come.